Page 54 of Taken By the Dangerous Duke

“Thank you, too, Aunt Bertha. You are not the only one who has been helped by our conversation this morning. Wait, before you go….”

“What is it, my dear?” asked Aunt Bertha. She stopped in her tracks. “Please do not tell me you have bad news.”

“No, it is nothing like that,” said Margaret. “I just… well, I have family in London. But, I don’t consider them my family anymore—not after what they tried to do to me, and what they have already done to me. I know this marriage is not the most conventional marriage in the world, but at least I have gained one nice thing from it. I feel that I have some family at long last.”

“Oh, my dear,” said Aunt Bertha. “You can’t think of me—”

“Do not even try to put yourself down. You have been more family to me than my own family ever was. And, I know you are going through your own stuff, but I do believe that you are a truly wonderful person, and I hope that I can still know you even after I gift the duke a child.”

“You will stay in the residence?” asked Bertha.

“I will move to the east wing so I can stay close to my child, but also so I can stay close to you, Aunt Bertha.”

“Don’t give up hope for your marriage just yet,” said Bertha. “People are still able to change, even if they are stubborn fools. And, don’t think that I am talking about you, my dear.”

“I know who you are talking about,” said Margaret, “but I cannot deny that I am a stubborn fool too at times. Thankfully, my own stubbornness got me out of one predicament and into another.”

“Well, if nothing else comes from this, at least I got to meet you, Margaret.”

“And you too, Aunt Bertha. And I mean it when I say it. You truly are an aunt to me. Thank you for coming.”

Bertha hugged Margaret one more time, and more tears were shed, even though both women had thought themselves cried dry.

“You are a special woman,” whispered Bertha. “And the duke knows that too. Look, I must go, but thank you again.”

They let go of each other, and Margaret sat back down in the chair as Bertha left. It felt as if the weight of the world had been lifted from her. She still had her problems, but they had been shared, and that had lightened them.

She only hoped that Bertha would find some peace. It could not have been easy for her to live her life with the burden in her heart. She had done it all for her nephew, and it had not done a thing. The damage had already been done by Arthur’s father. He had changed when his wife had died, and he was the one who had asked Arthur to start a family.

Margaret wondered if that was fair if him. Should one man have that much power over another’s life? She had broken free of her own family, glowing against her father’s wishes to marry a man and start a family, but that was different.

The man she was supposed to marry was a horrible and gross man, and she could not bear the thought of starting a family with him. Her life here might be unorthodox, but it was still much better than how she would have lived. Arthur had not been able to break free, but he loved his father dearly. It was a much different situation.

Margaret slumped deeper into the chair. There were small problems orbiting the large problem at the center. She still did not have a child in her belly. She had talked to Aunt Bertha about living in the east wing of the mansion, but that would only happen if she became pregnant, and it really had been a long time now.

“Victoria, please take everything away,” said Margaret. “I don’t have the stomach for anything this morning.”

“Would you like me to call the doctor, Your Grace?” asked her lady’s maid.

“No, it is not my body that is troubling me, but my mind.”

“As you wish, Your Grace. Perhaps some tea will help to calm you. It is a warm morning, and you need to stay hydrated too. That will help you to think straight.”

“No,” said Margaret a little more sternly. “Please, just take everything away, Victoria.”

“Of course, of course,” replied Victoria. “I will do so now, Your Grace.”

Victoria left her place by the wall and came to retrieve the pastries and tea. She loaded everything up onto the tray save for one cup. She then proceeded to pour some tea into the cup and leave it on the table beside Margaret.

“What are you doing?” asked Margaret.

“Your Grace, I only want you to feel better.”

“I am sure you do, but I already asked you to take the tea away.”

“Yes, Your Grace. But, I only thought that you might not be thinking straight with everything that has been going on, and I hate to see you like this.”

“What do you not understand about my words?” shouted Margaret. She was angry at the maid, and angry at her situation too, and it was all coming together in one perfect storm. “When I ask you to do something, I expect it to be done.”

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